I'm not quite sure if this would qualify as political but I've been thinking (I realize I'm not the only one) about the effect of technology on the well-being of societies.

When I was in high school it was still possible for someone to graduate from high school or even drop out and find a job that would allow for a home purchase and raising a family. But even then the handwriting was on the wall in that places that employed manual laborers were beginning to move to technology that would replace workers. Look at the auto industry. Robots have replaced a lot of workers.

The same has happened in many industries where productivity has increased with fewer people.
Clearly technological advances will continue to be made but is that going to mean that we will have to accept higher and higher unemployment rates? Of course a lot of people argue that we need more math and science education but the fact is that a lot of people simply are not cut out to be good scientists.

Will people have to settle for jobs with paper hats (McDonald’s, Burger King, etc.)?
On the other hand if people are making lower wages, perhaps the prices of goods and services will come down.
When people were earning $40/week you could buy a decent house for $2500.00.

One ponders………………

The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night and his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Shakespeare

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.Kent M. Keith

Too huge to be political. A good topic and it could be an interesting thread. I'll just put in that this has been ongoing since the industrial revolution and that tech affects individuals directly.

BTW that a lot of people aren't cut out to be good scientists doesn't mean they can't be scientists. Most scientists are very mediocre.

Perhaps. But do you really see American young people going into the hard sciences in great numbers in the near or even far off future? One of the things that has made the US unique among most societies is the ability to follow one's dream. So if you wanted to study Calligraphy a la Steve Jobs, you could. I don't know how many Steve Jobs we have running around nowadays though.

We certainly have too many MBAs and too many lawyers.

I don't see us having millions of hard science majors anytime soon.

The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night and his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Shakespeare

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.Kent M. Keith

I'm not quite sure if this would qualify as political but I've been thinking (I realize I'm not the only one) about the effect of technology on the well-being of societies.

When I was in high school it was still possible for someone to graduate from high school or even drop out and find a job that would allow for a home purchase and raising a family. But even then the handwriting was on the wall in that places that employed manual laborers were beginning to move to technology that would replace workers. Look at the auto industry. Robots have replaced a lot of workers.

The same has happened in many industries where productivity has increased with fewer people.
Clearly technological advances will continue to be made but is that going to mean that we will have to accept higher and higher unemployment rates? Of course a lot of people argue that we need more math and science education but the fact is that a lot of people simply are not cut out to be good scientists.

Will people have to settle for jobs with paper hats (McDonald’s, Burger King, etc.)?
On the other hand if people are making lower wages, perhaps the prices of goods and services will come down.
When people were earning $40/week you could buy a decent house for $2500.00.

One ponders………………

. Well this is my personal opinion and its been reinforced somewhat by my work (I work at an SME advisory firm) it's that young people today need to depend a whole lot less on formal jobs to survive in this economy and w/the competition with technology. Studies have shown one of the "advantages", if I can put it that way, of rising unemployment among under 35s is the increased propensity towards entrepreneurship in some countries (particularly middle-income South American & sub saharan african countries) and with some individuals Basically I don't think this is a hopeless situation at all seeing as how our forefathers did it and there is a shift towards that mentality a little bit.